Ultra-Adherable Dual-Network Conductive Hydrogel with Moistening and Anti-Freezing as a Flexible Sensor

Abstract

Multifunctional conductive hydrogels have shown great promise in wearable flexible sensor application. This paper reported a dual-network self-healing electrically hydrogel through simple one-pot polymerization, which initiated from Ag+- lignin nanoparticles (LNPs) -APS redox system. Owing to the reversible metal coordination and hydrogen bonding cross-linked among polymer network, the resulting conductive hydrogel-based sensor demonstrated excellent stretchable, adhesion strength, and fatigue resistance. Additionally, the complex hydrogel (PHEMA/SA/Gly/Ca) incorporating with glycerol and CaCl2 in particular exhibited strong frost resistance (-40oC) and moisturizing qualities to monitor the motion signals in the low-temperature dry state. Therefore, the fabricated wearable sensor is sufficient for detecting large and small human motions, suggesting lots of promising applications in electronic skins, information identification and encryption, and human-motion monitoring.

Keywords: Lignin nanoparticle, dual-network conductive hydrogel, anti-freezing, moisturizing, strain sensor